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with goat cheese & jam

I keep telling myself that it’s almost spring and that I should really start at least attempting to exercise regularly in the event of waking up one morning to discover it’s shorts-weather, but it seems as though mother nature is giving me a break because it’s freezing and apparently supposed to snow today. Thanks for looking out, Earth. Now I get even more time to make excuses for not joining that new gym that opened up near me. Huzzah. Besides, I’d much rather spend my free time blogging for you fine people, and in the interest of keeping things just barely interesting, I need to go out and do things. Or at least that is what I tell myself in order to not feel guilty about being so lazy. Whatever. Moving on. Last week was busier as we headed into the weekend. We went with Morgan to 92Y on the Upper East Side (a really boring neighborhood, if you ask me – I try to never go up there due to its lack of good restaurants and decent bars) to see a “conversation” (or a lecture…I’m not really sure what to call it) between Michael Cera and David Cross. It was fun! Kramer and I saw Cross once before years ago as part of a tour alongside Patton Oswalt and Brian Poshen, and although he can be kind of a pain in the ass, what with his “I’m not a sell-out” philosophy (roll eyes), Cera was adorable and hilarious and was able to steer the conversation away from being overly preachy.

Hanging out at the bar with Rachel on Saturday.

Friday night, Kramer and I had the foresight to buy tickets in advance and went to see Spring Breakers. It was exactly what I expected, so I loved it. If I’ve heard any complaints about it, it’s that it wasn’t serious enough or that it wasn’t as good as Korine’s other work, but look, people – take it for what it is and just enjoy it! I thought it was absolutely insane and for that reason, had a great time watching it. After the movie, we met up with some friends for drinks then called it an early-ish night. Saturday, we were able to sleep in, have breakfast, then grab an early drink and a game or two of shuffleboard before hitting up yet another movie. This time we saw Stoker, which I also really liked. It’s rare that we’ll see two movies in one weekend, let alone two good movies, but we lucked out, it seems. I love Mia Wasikowska and Stoker was sufficiently creepy, which made up for any fear factor that was left out of Spring Breakers. We had a late sushi dinner, then headed out and caught up a bit on The Americans before dozing off. On Sunday, we went for brunch at a restaurant I won’t mention because of the insanely slow service; we kept watching people who showed up after us be served food while we sat there for over half an hour (my life is so hard). Thankfully, when we actually got the food, it was delicious. I had smoked salmon, of course, as I have at least once every weekend. We ran a few errands after brunch, then when we got home, I cooked while Kramer studied for his midterms (poor guy).

One of the things that I made yesterday was this matzo, which we enjoyed with cheese and preserves that we picked up on our way home. Matzo is incredibly easy to make, and even if you aren’t observing the food restrictions that come along with holidays like Passover (obviously we are not), it’s still fun to make and can be enjoyed in a number of ways. I salted mine, making for what was almost a lighter-tasting saltine. Kramer and I couldn’t stop breaking off pieces of the stuff while we worked on other things throughout the day, especially when paired with the lovely goat cheese and strawberry-peach jam that we procured. If you’re looking for something a bit different to serve with your appetizers or in your usual bread basket, matzo is the perfect thing. There’s no yeast, no refrigerating, not a single special step at all is required. Just combine your dough ingredients, roll out as thin as possible, and bake for a few minutes until golden and bubbly. I used half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour, but you can use whatever ratio you like. I’d imagine that some fennel seed or dill would be a happy pairing in these unleavened treats, especially if you’re going to serve it my favorite way, with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Seeing as how Kramer and I have plenty of leftover matzo, I think I may have to pick up these very ingredients to have for dinner this week. Who says lox are only for breakfast?

A burned out cab in front of my building on Friday after work (everyone’s fine), which was a great segue into seeing Spring Breakers. We had to grab a slice after the movie, of course. Saturday, we saw Stoker, then Sunday, we ran errands and rewarded ourselves with brunch.

So, for the matzo: bring your dough together, then roll it out as thin as possible. It helps to use two pieces of parchment.

When you’re done, use a fork to poke little holes into the sheets.

Brush with water, sprinkle with salt, and bake at 500 degrees F for 3 minutes or so on each side, until golden and bubbly.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F, and place two baking sheets inside so that they are nice and hot.

Combine your flours, 1 cup of warm water, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 1 teaspoon of kosher slat in a large bowl. Divide the dough into six balls, then one at a time, roll the balls out into sheets as thin as you possibly can onto a lightly floured surface. It helps to place the dough between two pieces of parchment or wax paper so that the dough doesn't stick to the counter. If your dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour to the dough.

Remove one baking sheet (it's best to do one sheet of matzo at a time so they each get nice and bubbly from the top of the oven) and place a sheet of rolled out matzo dough on it. Lightly poke holes all over the dough with a fork, then lightly brush the dough with water and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 3 minutes or so on each side, until the matzo is golden brown and slightly bubbly. Repeat with the remaining dough. The matzo will keep well, lightly wrapped in foil or in a bag, for up to a week.

I have only recently discovered the wonder of pass over food. It is not a huge holiday here in Australia, but I love the fact the food has such history behind it. Matzo looks too easy and so versatile, I am looking at this at thinking of goats cheese and fig chuteny right now.

[…] but I figured that scrambled instead of poached eggs were in order this time around. I made Homemade Matzo this past weekend, and I wanted to use it in a recipe for McCormick. They have some awesome spring […]